Sunday, August 29, 2010. 1 PM EST, 7 PM Barcelona time. ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com

So this is the new year? Yes, yes it is. And isn’t it about damn time we get down to some La Liga games? As far as benedictions go, this is a good one. On Sunday, FC Barcelona begins its 80th La Liga campaign and another league championship title defense at Racing Santander. For a squad that many are predicting will win its 21st league title this year, Barcelona certainly faces a number of questions ranging from the starting front line to depth concern and the prospect of youth and young manhood taking over in the midfield. Then again, the club also sports the greatest amount of talent in the league, and likely of any club in the world. So… let’s preview shall we? Continue Reading

AC Milan come to town tomorrow to play in the Joan Gamper Trophy match, a preseason ritual that is more run-out than hotly contested match (though Puyol and Eto’o two years ago would have called me a series of names for such an insulting statement). I’m not one to get too excited about it, but whereas last year it meant Ibra’s home debut (which was fun despite the 0-1 final scoreline), this year it means the return of Ronaldinho. I miss Ronnie in that nostalgic way where his presence on the field remind me of a time when I was watching all the matches from Central America and Mexico, typically while sweating and swearing in equal measure. I enjoyed those years and so–despite the modern era being much nicer for a myriad of reasons (the main one doesn’t typically read the blog, so I don’t have to worry about offending her)–I’m looking forward to seeing this one.

I expect a full round of cheers for Ronnie, what with this not being a competitive match after all, and a generally pleasant atmosphere throughout the the game. I’d rather see Ibra play with Villa and maybe even see them misfire a bit than play a serious match with serious consequences. We have Racing on Sunday, so there’s no reason to put our boys at risk for more than 45 minutes apiece (I can never remember how many subs we get, but I’m assuming infinite). That said, I certainly want to see us win this one because, as Guardiola says, it’s a good test of where we are as a team.

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Woo! It’s preview time for the Sevilla match and Barcelona is hoping to bring home the 8th championship of the Pep Guardiola era and start the season off right after an offseason of ups (hey, 8 World Cup champions) and downs (Zlatan is staying, for the last time, if you ask again, the banhammer is coming out). But out boys have got some work to do after taking a 3-1 beating at Sevilla last weekend in a game that featured very little good play, although that’s to be expected when none of your players have practiced together in 3 months and most of them have spent that time on a beach. But enough with the excuses here, Barcelona lost and the only way to make it better is to win at least 2-0 tomorrow. Continue Reading

Oh me oh my, gotta shake off the cobwebs and figure out how I do a preview again. This is going to be rough, not only because I just flew in from Mexico (and boy are my arms tired), but I’ve only been given a few weeks off since I won the World Cup in a blaze of glory. Okay, yeah I didn’t do anything–I didn’t even go to Mexico–but I did watch the World Cup from the comfort of my home and I did think the summer was a bit too short.

There were the obligatory transfer rumors that I didn’t really cover (though I came up with some Banquillo names just in case) and the preseason matches that got my blood pumping and my lady shaking her head far too early in the season. I can’t help it if I scream goal at 8 in the morning while watching the blaugranitos imitating the blaugranotes. And then, of course, there’re the new arrivals to swoon over even as I categorically reject newer arrivals: Villa is going to be wonderful, but let’s bet on the cantera. No to Mascherano, Özil, and Cesc! It’s easy to just accept what’s already been done and just as easy to posture as a cantera-lover for future arrivals. You can always claim you weren’t in favor of so-and-so, look how they failed, I told you so. Or “I’ve grown to love such-and-such, though, he’s really accepted the colors.”

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Liga Preview: Barça – Valladolid, Sunday 1pmEST, ESPN2HD

This match is somehow under the radar, despite its significance. There are no Ens Hi Deixerem La Pell shirts being displayed, there are no slogans, no commercials, no gratuitous news coverage of the team’s every move. Yet this match dwarfs the Champions League semifinals because it is the match that will decide who earns the La Liga title this year. I know it’s just Valladolid, but we cannot take them lightly and we must beat them.

This is for everything. It’s easy to fall into the hyperbolic sewer of claiming each and every game is the most important one of the season. I’ve done it, of course, but at least this time I have the luxury of saying that I won’t do it again this season…which is akin to saying my favorite Zoolander movie was the first one. Which it was. Still, this match has become the defining match of the season for those who define seasons solely by trophy hauls. It’s either we win this and rise above the rest of the league or we lose and Madrid surfaces from beneath the murky depths to somehow claim our prize.

I want to say this now: whatever happens against Valladolid, whether we win, draw, or lose, whether we come out with a league title or not, whether there’s a goleada historica or an epic choke job, this team and this season are as far from failures as you can get. They are winners and overachievers, they are artists in a world of hacks, and they are successful through beauty despite the hard fouls, despite the bullseye on their backs, and despite the inclination of others to dismiss their grievances because they need to “man up.” Man up this, suckas.

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Liga Preview: Sevilla – Barça, Saturday 3pm EST, GolTV

As if you didn’t know: this is important. Like, trophy-sized important. Like, all the marbles important. Like, name your next child after the guy who scores the game winner important. Okay, maybe not, especially if you’re going to have a girl named Lionela. But it’s still damned important. This is a match that will define a season filled with season-defining matches, with edge-of-your-seat battles between top-notch teams…and Mallorca.

I’m no mathematical wizard, mind you, but a 1-point lead with 6 points to play for is tenuous at best and requires 2 wins out of 2 matches. Apparently there are 81 possible outcomes to the 4 matches in question (Barça at Sevilla, vs Valladolid; RM vs Bilbao, at Malaga) and while a large percentage of those favor Barça because of our 1-point lead and the tie-breaker going in our favor, what is required of the team is to beat Sevilla tomorrow and Valladolid next weekend. That’s no easy task, but every match is there for the taking.

This is a huge match for our opponents as well, who need a win to greatly increase their chances of getting the 4th Champions League spot, which they currently own thanks to Mallorca’s loss on Wednesday to RM. And now Mallorca needs us to beat Sevilla. I see how it is: you want us to help you out, but you’re not willing to help us out. Yeah, yeah, all right…jerkwads. So who, exactly, are we going up against?

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Liga Preview: Barcelona – Tenerife, Tuesday 2pm, GolTV

Before Saturday’s game, I exhorted the boys in blaugrana to unleash hell on Villarreal and to a certain extent they did just that. It was refreshing to see a game that wasn’t all hard tackles and closed space, but instead was full of one-touch passing and attacking moves by both sides (gasp!). Obviously our goals made it a little easier to accept some of the defensive frailties that led to Villarreal’s best chances, though I still don’t understand what happened on their goal and I still don’t know what Valdes was thinking with his Zambrotta-esque clearance to the wrong team. Fortunately, those are fairly easily corrected mistakes (says the guy in his house almost 4,000 miles away), so I’m not too worried about them in the immediate future.

That future is, of course, the arrival of Tenerife at the Camp Nou. It would be a tragic mistake to take the Canarian outfit lightly, despite their points haul (roughly 2/5 our own–35 to 90), despite their abysmal away record (6pts in 17 matches), and despite their prior loss to us in their home stadium. This will not be an easy encounter because they are fighting relegation with everything they have. Sure, the gulf in class is obvious, but if Osasuna can get within one horrendous miss from downing Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, there is no doubt in my mind that taking the day off will cause us to lose the league. And that would be some fun payback for the merengues whose memories go back far enough to remember Tenerife “stealing” the league from the capitaleños.

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Liga Preview: Villarreal – Barelona, Saturday 4pmEST, GolTV

It’s always tough to refocus on the league after being bounced from the Champions League, especially when the hyperbole (Mourinho is a genius!) is taken to the extreme like it has been by several typically astute and intelligent writers (from The Guardian to Zonal Marking on down to personal friends). But that is neither here nor there in the greater scheme of things for a Barça fan because if Mourinho leaves Inter and moves to the Bernabeu, we’ll get to see this “genius” every day next season and judge him on our own; we have a league to win anyway and The Special One can shove it.

We head to Villarreal, against whom we’ve recently had some trouble winning, including a 1-1 draw in the Camp Nou in the first half of the season. That match (Kevin’s review here, highlights here), was a strange one and it included Jonathan dos Santos starting and Iniesta coming in off the bench for him. This time around we’re taking little Thiago Alcantara with us, perhaps because JDS is currently injured or perhaps because Thiago has proven his worth to Pep. Whatever the reasons, here is our squad list:

Valdés, Pinto, Puyol, Márquez, Gabi Milito, Chygrynskiy, Piqué, Alves, Maxwell, Xavi, Busquets, Keita, Yaya, Thiago, Jeffren, Bojan, Messi, Pedro, Henry, Ibrahimovic

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For Sid Lowe, this whole remuntada business smacks of desperation on Barça’s part and I can understand where he’s coming from, but as a cule, as a guy who has dreamed about this goddamned game for 3 straight nights now, watching the hype videos and nervously pacing about my living room while El Cant blast from my speakers (hold on while I play it again–ah, that’s better, thanks for holding), this campaign really does it for me. Ens hi deixem la pell actually means something, jo crec en la Remuntada makes me feel that things. So, whatever desperation this reeks of, whatever fear we’re exuding, whatever instability others see in our eyes, I accept it as part of an emotional rollercoaster that will not end until long after tomorrow’s final whistle. And I accept it as a fan, as someone emotionally invested in what happens to a sphere on a field in Spain. So be it.

CL Preview: Barça – Inter Milan, Wednesday 2:45pmEST FSC/FSE

We all know the score. We all know the stakes. We all know that regardless of the outcome, we will love this club, this team, and this season. Life is too wonderful at 87 points to worry about failures because they’re non-existent, even if we end this season trophy-less–this is a wonderful time to be a Barça fan and we’re in the semis of the Champions League for the third consecutive year, we won it all last year, and we’re still playing beautiful football that makes most people swoon. And that’s what I expect out of the squad tomorrow, for 90 minutes (120 if necessary): love of the game, giving it your all, playing beautifully.

Of course I want us to win, of course I want to crush all comers and bring home the bacon in silverware form, but I want to do it the way we know how and I want to do it against the best in the world opposition the world has to offer so that no one can dispute that we did it the right way and did it looking good. I know the type of hole we’re in and I know how tough this is going to be, but we have the opportunity to right the wrong, to play above their game plan and our mistakes last week. They were better than we were last week and this week, at our home, in front of our fans, we can be better than they can be and I think we will do it.

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Liga Preview: Barça – Xerez, Saturday 12pm EST, GolTV

Update! Check out my Minute +10 Podcast with Kevin Walker of OGN/Serie A Weekly. We discuss the Champions League in-depth and what the underage French hooker scandal could lead to.

I seem to enjoy the sport-as-war titles, don’t I? There were the Visigoths, the invasions of the Russian steppe, and a few other “it’s time to kill some fools” kinds of titles out there. This is no exception, but what’s interesting is this match seems like the forgotten child–the Kevin in Home Alone to our Paris vacation, if you will. And no, I’m not talking about our Kevin. I mean, it’s just Xerez, right? It’s just the worst team in the league, isn’t it? We can forget about this one and move on to the bigger fish we have waiting next to our fryer, can’t we? It’s Inter, man, the remontada, the comeback of the century, come on, stop with the boring Xerez talk.

But that’s the thing: you can’t forget about a single point, a single minute in this league or you’ll end up without any silverware. Overlook even the smallest of fish and they’ll find a way to crawl up your junk and eat you from the inside out (read this and this to justify your skepticism/fear). So, what I’m saying is, you gotta go balls-to-the-wall against even the smallest of opponents and put them to the sword quickly if you want to rest at all during a match. Allowing them to stick around lets them grow in confidence and that, in turn, means we have to expend more energy to destroy them.

And yes, I just spent the last 10 minutes shivering at the thought of Victor Sanchez climbing up my urethra and into–must stop this goddamned line of thinking before I freak out and run into the street screaming about Spanish men being in my pants. For those of you who live in crazytown like me, it would just be a typical Friday afternoon, though, right?

Ahem.

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